After posting this photo I had several friends request my “secrets,” and while I’m no expert, I told them I’d be glad to tell them what I know. I consider myself an intermediate couponer. I’ve been doing this for a while, but I’m by no means an expert. As I stated in the photo, this wasn’t my best haul, but I got a lot of things I had been needing and I only got things I use on a regular basis.

I always start my couponing adventures by checking out The Krazy Coupon Lady’s website (KCL). I also follow several deal-making ladies on Facebook. (I think this is an important piece of the puzzle, because it keeps the deals fresh in my mind and when they show up in my newsfeed I think about it more often.) Some of my faves are: Deal Seeking Mom, Frugal Girls!, and The Krazy Coupon Lady. These websites and facebook pages have done a lot of the legwork for us. They make finding the deals easy and fun. God bless their souls.

Everyone has their own strategy to collecting coupons, but for me, I usually get four Sunday newspapers each week. I don’t always use all four of each coupon, so I would say to start with two and see what you want to do. It usually takes about a month or so to accumulate enough coupons to really strike gold. I prefer the binder system, with sheet protectors for the coupons (you know, like your little brother used to keep his baseball cards in). I have dividers in my binder separating all the categories into the way I shop: refrigerated foods, canned goods, produce, cleaning products, pet supplies, etc… do what works for you. KCL has a lot of suggestions about this as well.

Okay, so you have your binder, you clipped and organized your coupons, and you’ve been on the KCL website to find the best deals of the week. What’s next? You’ve gotta get out there and SHOP!! I prefer to leave my boys at home. I like to grab a couple of deals from several stores, and Bubbie isn’t so patient with all that nonsense. So I get some mommy time all to myself AND I save my family a bunch of money. It’s a win-win! Anyway, back to saving…

I posted a photo of my deals from this week, with the disclaimer that these aren’t necessarily the greatest deals ever, but I wanted to spell out each deal for you so you can see how I did it. Here’s the breakdown:

Hy-Vee

6 Tone’s spices. Originally $1.19, on sale for 5 for $4 ($0.80 each). I had three coupons for $1.00 off 2.

MATH: ($0.80 x 6) – $3.00 = $1.80 (would have been $7.14, saved 75%)

Dollar Tree

4 Speed Stick Deodorants. $1.00 each. I had four coupons for $1.00 off 1.

2 Herbal Essences large conditioners with full size hairspray. Shelf price read $6.50. Rang up on clearance at $3.50. I had two coupons for $1.00 off 1.

MATH: ($3.50 x 2) – $2.00 = $5.00 (would have been $13, saved 62%)

** I mostly did this deal because I needed conditioner :)

Walgreens

4 Dawn Hand Renewal. Originally $1.89, on sale for $0.99. I had four coupons for $0.50 off 1.

2 Lysol Sanitizing Wipes. Originally $3.59 each, on sale $4.00 for 2. I had a manufacturer’s coupon for $0.50 off 2, and I had a store coupon for $2.00 off 2. (This is called stacking. Most stores will accept one manufacturer’s coupon and one store coupon per item. Walgreens and CVS are meccas for stacking, because they put out so many store coupons. Both stores also offer cash back rewards on certain items, which is how a lot of people actually MAKE MONEY on deals. Pretty fun!)

Dillons is super fun to shop at. They double coupons EVERY DAY. At least mine to. Coupon doubling policies are different at every store, but my Dillons double every coupon up to $1.00. So a $0.50 coupon is really $1.00. A $0.75 coupon is also $1.00. A $0.35 coupon is $0.70. You get the picture. My Hy-Vee doubles on Tuesday and Thursday, so I go there on those days. :)

This was my most complicated-to-explain deal. My store was having a “Buy 10, save $5” sale, where you essentially get $0.50 off each item when you buy 10 of the items that are part of the sale. The Kleenex, the Starkist Tuna, Snuggle, and the Good ‘n Natural bars were all a part of this deal.

6 boxes of Kleenex. Originally $1.99 each, on sale for $1.49, but $5 off 10 sale made them $0.99 each. I had two coupons for $0.50 off 3, which doubled to $1.00 off 3.

6 pouches of Starkist Tuna. Originally $1.79 each, on sale for $1.49, but $5 off 10 sale made them $0.99 each. I had 3 coupons for $0.55 off 2, which doubled to $1.00 off 2.

1 bottle Snuggle Fabric Softener. Originally $4.69, on sale for $3.49, but $5 off 10 sale made it $1.79. I had a coupon for $0.50 off 1, which doubled to $1.00 off 1.

7 Good ‘n Natural bars. Originally $1.29 each, on sale for $0.89 each, but $5 off 10 sale made them $0.39 each. These were fillers (and yummy g-free treats!)

2 Blistex lip balm. On sale for $1.00 each. I had a coupon for $0.35 off 1, which doubled to $0.70 off 1.

There you have it. That’s what I accomplished on Tuesday. Like I said before, I’m not a pro, but I had some friends who were curious, so I thought maybe the blogging world could benefit just a bit from what I had to say on the subject. PLEASE ask questions. I’d love your feedback. It seems silly for any of us to pay full price for things like this! It takes a little while to catch on to all the ins-and-outs of it, and I still have questions after more than a year of couponing off and on, but it is such a thrill and totally worth the time it takes. I love it! And I hope you do too!! <3

I promise, I was creative yesterday. Promise! I just didn’t blog about it. You can check out what I did over here in my Etsy Shop. Not gonna lie, I actually created the cards a while back, but I’ve been putting off taking pictures and posting them online for some time. Now, they’re up for the world to admire! The goal of this project is for me to get my “mommy time” every day. Ideally that will be through crafting something, painting something, or DIYing something… some days it will be a “chore” that has been needing attention, that still helped me achieve some “mommy time.” Just so we’re clear. :)

Now, completely unrelated to my creative process, I wanted to share something that I heard on K-LOVE yesterday. I have been battling with grudges lately. I know it’s wrong to hold a grudge against someone, and Jesus calls us to forgive those who trespass against us. But dang. I’ve been hurt. We’ve all been hurt, and I know that my hurt is nothing special, but I have been letting it consume me. And yesterday while I was driving the little man to go get the big man from work, one of the DJs on K-LOVE was talking about forgiving others, and how when we fail to forgive someone else and we obsess over the grudge we are holding, we are in fact worshiping another god. We have made that hate into a god that is getting far more attention than it should, and is taking away from the attention we should give to Jesus Christ. Whoa. I hadn’t thought of it in that regard before, and the thought hasn’t left my mind since yesterday afternoon. Thank you K-LOVE for being a light to me. And thank you Lord for loving me anyway.

There’s something about the ‘end’ of something that drives me. That drives a lot of people.

The end of the month.

The end of the year.

The end of this life.

This is the basis that resolutions are founded on. Goals. Ambitions. Deadlines are my driving force. The thing that pulls at my heartstrings. Procrastination fits in there somewhere, but that’s for another day. But it’s related.

I was doing some reading today. I was “stuck in a blog” as my husband and I like to joke. When suddenly I was inspired. I am often inspired by others’ blogs and projects, but this was long-term inspiration. Project 365 has been a big movement in the arts community, and I only first heard of it when my brother took a stab at it last year. He accomplished Project 100. An admirable feat, considering the number of jobs he has and his lack of free time. I loved the idea, and considered my own photo journal… but when I thought about it, I really don’t love photography enough to devote an entire year to growing in it. That’s not to say that I don’t want to learn more or that someday I may have a deeper passion for it, but right now I am very comfortable in my amateur state.

However…

I read today about others who are taking on 365 day challenges outside of photography. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this before.

So… deadlines…

It’s silly to start something new on, say, the 23rd of February. So… I’m going to spend the next 6 days focusing my energy on getting my house back in order after the crazy month I’ve had. But I am super excited for March 1st.

Starting March 1st I am going to post a project a day. Now, ‘project’ is a loose term here. My goal is to find a way to channel some creative energy every day. Some days that may be an entire painting finished and hung on the wall, and other days that may just be a napkin doodle from lunch. Either way, I want to find a way to have some “me” time every day, doing the things I love.